WASHINGTON:
President Obama has said he wishes to shut down Guantanamo Bay prisoner
facility if possible before his term ends later this year, as he said, the
prison is not forward-looking to the national security but actually destabilized
it.
Obama
said he does not want to pass this issue to the next future president, and
neither can the nation wait for another 10, 15 or 30 years to resolve it. The
president declared that a new plan prepared by the defense department has his
support.
“The
plan we are putting forward today isn’t just about closing the facility at
Guantanamo. This is not just about dealing with the current group of detainees,
which is a complex piece of business because of the manner in which they were
originally detained and what happened. This is about closing a chapter in our
history,” he said. The edited plan will be submitted before the Congress for
approval according to which 85 percent of the detainees will be transferred to
foreign countries, and remaining will face trials in the US.
President
Obama said at least 35 detainees considered to pose threat will be brought to
the US and their cases will be heard in federal courts. The specific locations
where these detainees will be transferred have not been identified yet.
“This will also eliminate terrorist propaganda tool,” he said, adding that,
(Guantanamo) has been counterproductive against fighting terrorism.
In
his remarks, Obama said the earlier plan to close down the Guantanamo facility
was bilateral when he first became president. “President Bush wanted to close
it down,” he said adding that, “I and John McCain agreed to close it too,” but
later the issue became partisan and the Congress imposed restrictions.
According
to the new plan, the US government is pursuing three lines of effort concurrently.
This includes, identifying transfer opportunities for detainees designated for
transfer; continuing to review the threat posed by those detainees who are not
currently eligible for transfer and who are not currently facing military
commission charges, and continuing with ongoing military commissions prosecution
and, for those detainee who remain designated for continued law of war
detention, identifying individualized temperament where available, including
military omission prosecution, transfer to third countries, foreign prosecution
or, should Congress lift the ban on transfers to the US, transfer to the United
States for prosecution in Article III courts and to serve sentences.
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